According to a population-based study from Greece, while already linked as a way to protect against heart disease, the Mediterranean diet can still help people with established heart problems.

The Med diet is rich in olive oil, fruits, vegetables and fish and the mechanism by which it exerts its benefits to heart health is thought to be complex, but scientists have proposed improvements in blood pressure, body weight, blood lipid concentrations, and inflammation.

The study headed by Demosthenes Panagiotakos from Harokopio University in athens was published in the journal Nutrition (doi:10.1016/j.nut.2006.04.005) is one of the few first that looked into the link of Med diet in people with severe prognosis of heart disease.

"The results of our study extend previous scientific knowledge that greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet has a beneficial effect on the severity of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), and on its short-term prognosis, in a free-eating population," wrote Panagiotakos.

Read more at NutraIngredients.